Inhaltsangabe

Inquisitor Glokta, a crippled and bitter relic of the last war, former fencing champion turned torturer, is trapped in a twisted and broken body - not that he allows it to distract him from his daily routine of torturing smugglers.

Nobleman, dashing officer and would-be fencing champion Captain Jezal dan Luthar is living a life of ease by cheating his friends at cards. Vain and shallow, the biggest blot on his horizon is having to get out of bed in the morning to train with obsessive and boring old men. And Logen Ninefingers, an infamous warrior with a bloody past, is about to wake up with plans to settle a blood feud with Bethod, the new King of the Northmen, once and for all - ideally by running away from it.

But as he's discovering, old habits die hard....especially when Bayaz gets involved. An old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant, he could be the First of the Magi, he could be a spectacular fraud, but whatever he is, he's about to make the lives of Glokta, Jezal, and Logen a whole lot more difficult....

This book begins a great series. Unfortunately the book itself is not that good. It takes half the book over 10 hours, before you even get the first hints of anything resembling a plot, and more than two thirds through the book before even one of the main characters get anything resembling motivations for any of the things they do. By the end of it though, things are going great, there is a plot, and characters have motivations for what they do, and you can not wait to the get the next part.

The narrator is doing a good job. He misses few a paragraph pauses making scene-changes confusing, but he is still well above average.

Story:What seems like a decent fantasy-story quickly becomes one of the best you will ever hear - not because it has a fancy story with twists and turns, but because every single character has a some kind of an extremely big quirk. There are no shiny heroes you can rely upon, no knights on white horses, no typical moralizers, but likeable and at the same time hateable anti heroes. And that's what this book is mainly build around.Narrator:Though at the beginning Steven Pacey seems hard to listen to (a bit too monotone and fast when he is "just" narrating), he excels later on, when he develops the characters. Almost always you know which person is talking, because each one is impersonated brilliantly by him and this is - so far - the best narrator I've experienced.

The Blade itself is the first novel of the trilogy 'The First Law'. Abercrombie's style and narrative is the closest I could find so far to R.R. Martin's 'A Song of Ice and Fire'. It does not have the complexity and depth, but it has its own value.5 characters dominate the scene:Logan Ninefingers, a fierce fighter from the North, who struggles with the demons of his past, running away from violence, but attracting it nonetheless.Inquisitor Glokta, a former war hero and dashing swordsman, but a crippled bitter man now. He has a lot in common with Tyrion Lannister, outwardly cruel and cynic, he often enough seems to be more human than most of the noblemen and leaders around him. Jezal dan Luthar, a vane, arrogant and superficial young officer, whom fate pulls out of his comfortable shell and throws into the midst of adventure and peril.Bayaz, the first of the Magi, a powerful and intriguing old wizard. Dangerous and unpredictable in his wrath, he sets out with his small group of compagnions to save the world.Ferro Maljinn, the most bizarre character of the group, vicious and incredibly violent, constantly on the look out for a fight.Bayaz, Logan, Jezal and Ferro prepare for an epic journey to the end of the world to find the ultimate weapon, which would save the empire, while Glotka plays his game of intrigue, corruption and lies to keep the powers within the empire in balance. Fast moving story, action packed scenes, some surprising twists and turns, all in all a great read